Black Sheep




We didn't have any chocolate pudding.

Behold Chris Farley in all his unadulterated glory, without direction and any real semblance of humor.

Al Donnelly (Tim Matheson) is in a tight race for state governor, his only problem coming in the form of his well meaning but bungling brother Mike (Chris Farley). David Spade plays the wormy aid assigned to keep Mike out of the public eye, but he's less than entirely successful. The rest of the plot mostly consists of the two idiots bumbling around the forest where they're hiding out, and also creating the most embarrassing havoc the screenwriters can imagine whenever they decide to break their "stay out of the way" orders to try to help Mike's brother.

Though Farley tipped over before they could make anything out of it, he and David Spade teamed up in this disaster and also in the mildly enjoyable Tommy Boy. It isn't clear what Penelope Spheeris had in mind for this movie, but the overall tone lends the impression that just having the two comedians onscreen together is enough reason to make a movie. Right. Actually, the partnership is fairly clueless as Spade's character is rather flat, showing only traces of his trademark smugness. The two become best buds immediately, which is unlikely enough, but disappointing as well. So like squandering the questionable talent involved, the plot is handled much in the same way. While being just a shade above ridiculous, it also serves no real purpose and has more than a few senseless details. It's all for the humor, which is so terribly unfunny that it's difficult to really call this a comedy. Most of the jokes are recycled, watered down versions of what were in Tommy Boy. And most of them involve Chris Farley throwing himself around, getting hurt, etc, because that's just so funny.

So it's safe to say Farley wasn't deserving of any Oscars that year. He tries to put in some serious stuff, but any part of the plot resembling that can be filed under pathetic for lack of effort. David Spade is completely wasted, something that may not be all that bad. His character is just there all of a sudden, the plot merely serving to get Farley and Spade together since he doesn't really do anything else. The rest of the cast fills in the trite characters without so much as a whimper.

It's a shame Farley has to be left with this as a legacy, but the kids would do well to heed the moral of the story.



-The Gnome